Hot Springs National Park

Until Gateway Arch National Park was designated in 2018 – Hot Springs was the smallest National Park in the entire system. While not the first “National Park” (that belongs to Yellowstone) – Hot Springs was the first land area to be set aside by the federal government for recreation which occurred in 1832. It would take another 89 years for Hot Springs to be named a National Park in 1921. While there are 26 miles of mostly forest covered hiking trails in the park – this park is really about historical buildings – specifically, bathhouses where people took advantage of the hot springs to relax.

When to Go

Anytime of year works at this park. It can get extremely hot in the summer – so if you want to avoid that – go in the Spring or Fall. We visited in early March and the temperatures were mild and enjoyable. Visiting in the Fall would have the added benefit of the potential fall colors on the many trees surrounding the town of Hot Springs.

How to Get Here

The park is located about an hour south of Little Rock airport – so this makes the most sense if you are flying in. You could also fly into either Dallas or Memphis and have longer drives (4 or 3 hours respectively). Of course, if you live in the Midwest or the South – this park is likely within a day’s drive for you.

Trip Length

You can easily see everything there is to see in this park including hiking several miles of the park’s trails in less than a day here. If you want to take advantage of relaxing at one of the bathhouses or spending time at some of the museums in town – plan an extra day so that you don’t have to rush through anything.

Where to Stay

There are plenty of affordable hotel chains within range of this park, so you should easily be able to find something that fits your budget. There is also a campground in the park – Gulpha Gorge – if you wanted to go that route and are able to bring your camping gear with you.

What to Do

Once you make it to Hot Springs, you will first need to find parking which surprisingly isn’t the easiest task to accomplish. There is a parking garage a couple streets over from Bathhouse Row – but it isn’t very large, so you will need to get lucky to snag a spot. Once you have found parking, we would recommend starting at the Visitor Center which is located in the historic Fordyce Bathhouse. There are guided tours of this bathhouse if a ranger is available which was not the case when we arrived. However, you are welcome to tour the bathhouse on your own which we definitely took advantage of. This particular bathhouse is no longer active – but it was the most luxurious of it’s time. You can easily spend 30-60 minutes walking around and exploring this bathhouse before heading back outside. We’d recommend walking the rest of Bathhouse Row as well.

If you are interested, there are a couple bathhouses which are still active to this day and offer packages to experience what people have experienced over the last couple hundred years. The first is Buckstaff Bathhouse which is the only bathhouse to have never closed at any point since its opening in 1912. The other is Quapaw Baths & Spa which is much more modern bathhouse. We chose just to admire these from the outside, but would consider heading into one of these when we return someday to get the full experience.

Behind Bathhouse Row is the half mile long Grand Promenade walk which will take you by a few of the natural hot springs and also will connect you to the North Mountain trail system. There are several entrances to the trail system – so feel free to head up any of them. You will climb 300-400 feet in a pretty short distance to get to the top of the forested hill where the Hot Springs Mountain Tower is located. The tower costs $8 to enter and head to top (at least in March 2018) where you will get sweeping views of the town of Hot Springs and Bathhouse Row as well as the surrounding National Forests. There is a loop trail at the top as well – Hot Springs Mountain Trail – which you can walk around for about 1.7 miles to take in the various views.

At this point – you have seen Hot Springs National Park. But there is a non-affiliated museum in the town of Hot Springs that we would also recommend checking out – The Gangster Museum of America. Hot Springs was known to be a common vacation spot for some of the most notorious gangsters in American history including Al Capone. We won’t spoil it for you – but this area was essentially neutral ground for these gangsters and they co-existed while relaxing and healing in the hot springs. You will get a great history of the area during this visit and it was less than $20 per person when we went.